Can Dispassion Sell as Well as Passion?

Mahatma Gandhi said, “A burning passion coupled with absolute detachment is the key to all success.” R. L. Emery, playing the drill sergeant in the movie Full Metal Jacket said, “A rifle doesn’t kill people. A marine with a hard heart kills people.”

How can one person be passionate and dispassionate at the same time?

The answer is that the emotion and lack of emotion are directed at two different aspects of the same challenge. Your passion is in the result and outcome your success brings, not so much to the steps required to get there. The former is the dream not to be denied, the latter is merely mechanics.

Passion is motivation towards getting or achieving something we want, are committed to the outcome and have a plan, and third, holding ourselves self-accountable to complete the necessary tasks. This part of selling requires an incredibly strong emotional pull to the desired end.

The other half, dispassion, comes from a strong sense of self and a belief that the goal, once set, will be achieved. The “who and how” are irrelevant; do we really care which of our 100 prospects buy as long as we get the x agreements we need? Are we willing to walk away from those who don’t qualify for us for whatever reason, no matter their size and potential? Will we ignore the distractions and negative Nancy’s, will we take the hill no matter the cost, are we willing to eat the pain? We will if we relegate the pain as entirely secondary to the goal. In one of the 20th century’s great books, Man’s Search For Meaning, Viktor Frankl quotes Nietzsche:

“He who has a why…can forbear almost any how.”

So what is your ‘why’ for selling? What is the meaningful outcome you are seeking to achieve that supersedes every ‘how’ of getting it done? If you don’t know, give us a call, we’ll help you to figure it out.

Once you do know everything gets easier. You’ll stop taking sales personally and start doing it professionally once you perceive that each human business interaction as just another step in the path to getting you to your outcome, to where your true passion lies. Mahatma Gandhi and a Marine Drill Sergeant. Two very different people with a common success concept: Commitment combined with dispassion gets results. Elimination of the human need for approval and erasing self-limiting beliefs combined with the firm resolution that you will achieve the end you seek makes you unbeatable.

A central tenet to Guess Free Selling is to give up trying to sell anything to anybody, to substitute true curiosity and active listening in its place, and to let nature take its course from there. Forget the money, forget the sale, and watch your numbers go to the top of the chart.

Having trouble grasping what we’re talking about here? Give Dave or me a call and let’s walk through it together. Get this and you are on your way to “the Dream”. Let go. Use the Force Luke.